MEADOW BRIDGE, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Meadow Bridge High School will be presented with an award Tuesday acknowledging 85% voter registration among students of the senior class – an award the school’s students will have earned for the 29th consecutive time.
But what’s more, Meadow Bridge has gone above and beyond the expectation of 85%, notching an astounding 100% registration among seniors not just this year, but for each of the 29 consecutive years for which the school has been presented with the award.
Named in honor of West Virginia’s own U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph for his nearly three-decade battle to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age, the Jennings Randolph Award was established in 1994 to recognize those high schools that registered at least 85% of its senior class to vote.
“This was during the time of the Vietnam War, and [Randolph] felt that if you were old enough for bullets, you were old enough for ballots,” says Meadow Bridge educator Corey Woodrum, who has helped to oversee the continuation of the school’s registration tradition over the past decade.
On Tuesday, February 7th, 2023, Meadow Bridge High will receive its 29th consecutive Jennings Randolph Award for 100% voter registration among the senior class.
“We are the only high school in the entire state of West Virginia to have done so and I have been fortunate enough to have been a part of that legacy for ten of those years,” Woodrum tells LOOTPRESS, emphasizing the significance of expressing the fundamental right to vote.
“This is the way to effect positive change at the federal, state, and local levels. So often we hear people complain about the outcome of elections, yet have not taken the time to vote,” he says.
“Their [the students’] vote does matter and it is vital to participate in elections. I instill the importance of not only registering to vote, but also utilizing that right at the polls during each election.”
Despite his own consistent efforts in ensuring the students of Meadow Bridge are familiar with the voting process and confident in their capacity to cast their own vote, Woodrum gives credit to the students themselves as well as those who came before him in pushing for voter registration at Meadow Bridge High.
“I believe at this point, students realize the importance of this award for our school as well as the importance of voting. That tradition carries us through each year of earning this prestigious award, [and] I would be remiss if I did not also share credit with Mr. Tom Viers and Ms. Melinda Burdette who worked diligently to secure the award prior to me.”
Secretary of State and Mac Warner, who recently announced an upcoming bid for Governor, will be on hand Tuesday along with his team to present the award to the senior class.
Secretary Warner will speak about the challenges that Senator Jennings Randolph faced while pushing for the adoption of what would become the 26th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Since 1994, only one high school has earned the [Jennings Randolph Award for civic engagement] every year,” said the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office upon presentation of the award to Meadow Bridge in 2022.
Event invitations have also gone out to current Governor Jim Justice along with Babydog, and United States Senator Joe Manchin.
The senior class at Meadow Bridge High School will be honored with their 29th consecutive Jennings Randolph Award on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 9:00am.